We talk about comics because we love comics.

Hello and welcome back to Comics Misremembered. This week we will be tackling all the issues that are destroying the Comics Marketplace and give you solutions!

Before we get to solving all the problems, I was to take a minute to address the passing of 2 of my favorite artists:

Norm Breyfogle

Carlos Ezquerra

I speak about their careers and what an impression that both these artist have left on me growing up.

We then go on to address the anti-corporate political movement on social media regarding a certain comic group and why they don’t like the upcoming new titles being released by Marvel and DC.

I am a man that looks for solutions when he is presented with a problem and I give some very real remedies to the so called “political problems” of today’s comics. What is the answer to all these issues?

I can sum it up by showing you a few things. What do these 4 comics have in common?

Give up? All 4 of these comics are Anthology comics. If you were born after 1995, you may be asking “What the heck is an anthology comic?”

Well, young person, an Anthology comic is a weekly or bi-weekly comic that features 3 to 4 different stories per book. These stories feature some of the most popular heroes and are written by new and established talent. It is also a great opportunity to introduce brand new characters into their prospective universes and see if they click with the audience.

In the podcast we go over many different reasons on why Anthology comics needs to make a come back into the current comic scene and why it’s the perfect testing ground for new characters in order to spring board them into their own ongoing series.

Heroes in Crisis is the new 9 issue miniseries by writer Tom King and artist Clay Mann.

It is published by DC and it is their 2018 event comic. How do I know it’s an Event Comic? Well, it does have “Crisis” right there in the title. I mean, that’s a dead give away right there, man. C’mon! Do you even comic book?

Enough of that silliness, let’s get back to serious business – talking about comic books! Jon and I had the opportunity to read the first issue of Heroes in Crisis that came out this past Wednesday and we decided to give it a review on the podcast but also take some guesses as to who is the murder. What? You didn’t know it was a murder mystery? Yep. There are many murders in this book and it was a hero that did it? (Or was it?)

Okay. Before we go too much further in the plot, let me just say right here:

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS PODCAST!

Now, it’s just the first issue so I don’t know how much we can actually be spoiling but we do take some “stabs” at guessing who ultimately is responsible for the deaths at Sanctuary.

First Spoiler: There are 2 suspects that the reader is given at the end of the issue…

Harley Quinn

and

Booster Gold

I know exactly what you are thinking: “Who is Booster Gold?” or “Hell Yeah, it’s Harley Quinn!” Both are valid points. Listen to the podcast and we give our opinions on who really is responsible for the murders. It just might change your opinion! We also go over a quick history of Booster Gold for those that need a refresher.

Heroes In Crisis is starting off with a bang (and a stab)! We look forward to the rest of the series. Also, if you want to know why “Crisis” is DC’s event brand, you should really listen to Podcast 132: CW’s Crossover Event: Crisis on Earth-X. I rundown all the related Crisis titles DC has published.

Since the debut of the Captain Marvel trailer for the upcoming movie, the internet has been a buzz about who is Carol Danvers? How did she become Captain Marvel? and what is her connection to the alien races: Kree and Skrulls?

This week, I have decided to make a podcast that answers none of these questions. Well, maybe one – The Kree. We are talking about the Kree this week. Except, it’s the not blue Kree that Carol Danvers knows. It’s the pink Kree from a parallel world. This pink Kree will eventually become Marvel Boy. This will make him the 5th Marvel Boy in the 616 Universe. Got that, right? Confused yet?

We are talking about the 2000 miniseries from Marvel called Marvel Boy. This is written by Grant Morrison and it has art from J. G. Jones. It was released under the Marvel Knights (mature readers) imprint.

This is a fantastic tale of sci-fi fantasy with a quick paced story that features art from one of the industries best. It’s a revenge tale of an alien that declares war on humanity only to fall in love with the enemy. There are many fun and fresh ideas that come out of this miniseries and we review them in the podcast.

You’ll learn about Marvel Boy AKA Noh-Varr. His nemesis/girlfriend Oubliette and her father – the Indomitable Dr. Midas…

Midas is the one in the golden Iron Man suit. He is a collector of Marvel artifacts and in this panel there are probably 8 Easter Eggs. He is also crazy because of all the Cosmic Ray radiation that he put himself through to gain superpowers.

Jon and I both read this series when it came out in 2000 and we had a blast re-reading it again. Join us in the podcast and let us convince you that you must read Marvel Boy!

We will be going back to 2003, George W. Bush was in office, the US was administering shock and awe to Iraq and we have the official formation of the Department of Homeland Security.

There was a lot going on in the world, so it seemed like the perfect time for writer Mark Millar to pitch the Elseworlds tale “What if Superman grew up in 1950s Communist Russian?” Luckily for all of us, the DC editors gave him the green light.

This leads to a 3 issue Elseworlds tale entitled Superman: Red Sun. Written by Mark Millar with art by Dave Johnson and Kilian Plunkett.

These are the 2 Tradepaper back covers of the collected story. Both are done by Dave Johnson so you get an idea of how great it looks.

Jon has never read this story so he found it very shocking. I read it when it originally came out and recently reread it when I bought the TPB.

Jon and I had a great time going over the book and there are spoilers but we save them for the very end of the podcast and do warn you to stop listening if you are going to read it.

In last week’s podcast, I mentioned that I met Tom King at the Fax Expo Boston and he saw me carrying a copy of John Byrne’s 2112 graphic novel. King asked if he could look at it and I began to tell him the history of how this book was made. I did not get to meet John Byrne but it gave me an idea.

This was the impetus for this week’s podcast. Jon has never read the graphic novel 2112 and I always like covering old comics so I thought we will do a review of it…

Here is the cover. Pretty cool, right? It has dinosaurs there and tall futuristic towers in the back. I know what you are thinking…”Dinosaurs are from the past! How did they get into the future?!” Well, we will find out together. Also, there is the image of a masked man. Who is this mystery man? Well, that would be…

Sathanus! The main antagonist in our story. You knew he was going to be a bad guy. How many guys in masks with red eyes turn out to be humanitarians? His mutant power…er, I mean – Halfling power (not mutant) is that he sucks the life out of people like a vampire. He was born to be the bad guy and he has ‘anus’ in his name so that makes him an a-hole.

Here is an image of Sathanus…uh, sucking. Pretty brutal. But who will be brave enough to take down this heel? Why that would be…

Agent Red – our main hero. This scene is early on in the comic and as you can see here is a tough and stoic man. Jon mentions in the podcast that Agent Red reminds him of Judge Dredd and that is an apt description.

Jon and I go over the graphic novel and let you know if this is something to be on the look out for next time you are at your local comic shop or flea market.

Back in 1992, DC comic creators had planned a story line where Clark Kent would finally marry Lois Lane after years of dating. This story was canceled at the last second due to a series of unfortunate events (which we chronicle in the podcast).

At the eleventh hour, the creative teams decide to go with a story line that was first suggested as a joke – “What if we kill Superman”?

This led to the infamous Death of Superman story line that ran for a few years through all 4 Superman books leading to the ultimate issue – Superman #75 where Superman finally dies…at least for a year or so. C’mon! No one stays dead forever in comics. 😉

Here is what Superman #75 looked like in it’s sealed black plastic bag and the actual cover.

Jump to 2018, WB video has just released a direct-to-video original movie called The Death of Superman. It is a adaptation of the multi-issue comic event that ends with Superman dying. (Spoilers!)

Jon and I have watched the movie, read the comic event and give a brief oral history on why it was a good idea to kill one of the most recognized comic creations.

Last week was the San Diego Comic Con where they held the 2018 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. So this week, Jon and I will be doing a review of the nominees and winners of some of the categories from the:

2018 Eisner Awards

Or as I like to call the podcast:

2 Ignorant Clods Butcher Names and Talk About Comics They Didn’t Read (For The Most Part).

Jon and I recognized a few of the creators and titles up for awards this year like: Monstress, Black Hammer and Hellboy.

Congratulations on all the winners and please don’t be too angry at us if we pronounced your name wrong. We will do better next year so keep up the good work!

Jon also goes over the 2 DC Movie Universe trailers that dropped: Aquaman and Shazam.

We saw it a few weeks ago and decided to do a review of it this week. It is a continuation of the last Ant Man movie and references ties to Captain America: Civil War.

The Ant Man series (like the Guardians of the Galaxy Series) are more light hearted and funny movies than the other series and I enjoy that. Not every hero has to be grim and gritty. This movie continues with a mixture of levity and fast pace story telling.

The movie introduces a new character called Ghost. Ghost is more of an anti-hero in the film than a true villain or at least, a sympathetic villain. This is similar to how Ghost is portrayed in the comics and we go over that in the podcast.

We go over the movie with minor spoilers and give our verdict if you should go out and see it. We then get into so the Marvel Comics story lines it references and some of the Easter Eggs that we spotted.

We discussed Books 1 and 2 last week and we continue on with the remaining Books 3 and 4.

We start the discussion with Miller’s crude brand of humor and we discuss if he could get away with this type of humor today. We go on to discuss Martha’s relationship with Chief Wasserstein, the introduction of the Surgeon General, the dissolution of the United States and Moretti’s final fate.

Some of the material is a bit dated but overall, Jon and I did enjoy reading (and rereading) this miniseries again.

July 4th was a celebration of the birth of the United States. It is also the birthday of Martha Washington. Who is that? Why she is the main protagonist in this week’s review.

Since it is Independence Day, it seemed appropriate to do a review of Give Me Liberty a creator owned comic from writer Frank Miller and artist Dave Gibbons.

The comic was originally published by Dark Horse Comics in 1990 and it is a creator owned character for Miller and Gibbons. Give Me Liberty was published as a 4 issue prestige comic miniseries.

Give Me Liberty is dark political satire that takes place in a near future dystopia. (Remember, this came out in 1990 and starts in 1995 with the birth of Martha Washington).

I have my original copies of this series and read it when it first came out in 1990. Jon has never read the series until this week. We had so much to talk about that we had to break this podcast up into 2 parts.

Part 1 – We cover the first 2 issues. We talk about President Rexall and how he repealed the 20th amendment (I think I mistakenly called it the 26th amendment) so he can run for president for more than 2 terms.

As you can see from Dave Gibbons lovely art, President Rexall looks more like a dictator with each passing election.

Martha joins PAX (which is a combination of the Peace Corp and the Marines) and her first mission is the protect the Amazon Rain Forest from the corporate greed of Fat Boy Burgers. Here is another great image from the series…

There is a lot to talk about in this series and most of the issues in this comic are still relevant today. Listen to part 1 and come back next week for our conclusion to the series.

Preacher is back! Season 3 premiered last Sunday so that will be the focus of this week’s podcast.

Jon and I talk about the first episode: our first impressions, the new characters and then end the podcast with our thoughts on what will happen during the rest of the season based on the comic. Guess what? THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS PODCAST! If you have listen to previous podcasts, you know we talk about everything to listener be aware.

One of the topics of discussion is the selection of Jody on the show. Here is a comparison of the comic vs the show:

Now, Jon is a fan of the guy who they cast. I on the other hand am not a fan (but maybe I will change my mind by the end of the season). Listen to the podcast to hear my reasons.

I’ll tell you what I am a fan of…the new print ads for the show.

These are hilarious.

As always, Jon and I have a great discussion on the show and try to keep it entertaining.

Links to our podcast:

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